Abstract: A method for differentiating pulmonary nodules in digitized medical images includes identifying an object of interest from a digital image of the lungs, computing a first distance map of each point of the object of interest, determining a seed point from the first distance map, starting from the seed point, growing a first region by adding successive adjacent layers of points until a background point is reached, and partitioning the first region into a nodule region and a non-nodule region.

Abstract: A method for segmenting digitized images includes providing a training set comprising a plurality of digitized whole-body images, providing labels on anatomical landmarks in each image of said training set, aligning each said training set image, generating positive and negative training examples for each landmark by cropping the aligned training volumes into one or more cropping windows of different spatial scales, and using said positive and negative examples to train a detector for each landmark at one or more spatial scales ranging from a coarse resolution to a fine resolution, wherein the spatial relationship between a cropping windows of a coarse resolution detector and a fine resolution detector is recorded.

Abstract: A method for computer aided detection of anatomical abnormalities in medical images includes providing a plurality of abnormality candidates and features of said abnormality candidates, and classifying said abnormality candidates as true positives or false positives using a hierarchical cascade of linear classifiers of the form sign(wTx+b), wherein x is a feature vector, w is a weighting vector and b is a model parameter, wherein different weights are used to penalize false negatives and false positives, and wherein more complex features are used for each successive stage of said cascade of classifiers.

Abstract: A reactive-diffusion method for estimating a diameter of an object of interest includes providing a volume of interest including a plurality of voxels, initializing at least two volumes of the volume of interest, wherein each of the voxels has at least two values corresponding to the at least two volumes of the volume of interest, respectively, performing a diffusion operation and a reaction operation on the voxels to adjust the at least two values, comparing, for each voxel, the at least two values to a threshold to assign each voxel to one of the at least two volumes, wherein the assignment of the voxels is a segmentation result, and estimating a diameter of the object of interest from the segmentation result, wherein the object of interest is represented by at least one of the at least two volumes but less than all the volumes.

Abstract: A method for automatically estimating a measure of a nodule includes providing sliced image volume data comprising at least one marked position of the nodule, extracting a sub-volume from the sliced image volume data that includes the marked position, performing a figure-ground separation to determine a solid foreground of the sub-volume and a non-solid foreground of the sub-volume, determining a seed point corresponding to the nodule from each of the solid foreground and the non-solid foreground, selecting one of the seed point of the solid foreground or the seed point of the non-solid foreground, determining whether the selected seed point is solitary or non-solitary and performing region growing for non-solitary selected seed point, determining a segmentation of the selected seed point, estimating the measure of the nodule corresponding to the segmentation, and outputting the segmentation and an estimate of the measure of the nodule.

Abstract: A method for estimating a diameter of an object of interest, includes extracting a sub-volume of voxels around a marker identifying a location of the object of interest, and determining a segmentation result identifying an edge of the object of interest by a reactive-diffusion method. The method further includes performing a boundary check on the segmentation result to determine whether the object of interest is solitary, estimating a diameter of the object of interest from the segmentation result upon determining the object of interest to be solitary, and extracting the object of interest by performing ellipsoid fit on the sub-volume and estimating a diameter of the object of interest upon determining the object of interest to be non-solitary.

Abstract: A method for differentiating pulmonary nodules in digitized medical images includes identifying an object of interest from a digital image of the lungs, computing a first distance map of each point of the object of interest, determining a seed point from the first distance map, starting from the seed point, growing a first region by adding successive adjacent layers of points until a background point is reached, and partitioning the first region into a nodule region and a non-nodule region.

Abstract: A method for automatically estimating a measure of a nodule includes providing sliced image volume data comprising at least one marked position of the nodule, extracting a sub-volume from the sliced image volume data that includes the marked position, performing a figure-ground separation to determine a solid foreground of the sub-volume and a non-solid foreground of the sub-volume, determining a seed point corresponding to the nodule from each of the solid foreground and the non-solid foreground, selecting one of the seed point of the solid foreground or the seed point of the non-solid foreground, determining whether the selected seed point is solitary or non-solitary and performing region growing for non-solitary selected seed point, determining a segmentation of the selected seed point, estimating the measure of the nodule corresponding to the segmentation, and outputting the segmentation and an estimate of the measure of the nodule.

Abstract: A method for computer aided detection of anatomical abnormalities in medical images includes providing a plurality of abnormality candidates and features of said abnormality candidates, and classifying said abnormality candidates as true positives or false positives using a hierarchical cascade of linear classifiers of the form sign(wTx+b), wherein x is a feature vector, w is a weighting vector and b is a model parameter, wherein different weights are used to penalize false negatives and false positives, and wherein more complex features are used for each successive stage of said cascade of classifiers.

Abstract: A method for segmenting digitized images includes providing a training set comprising a plurality of digitized whole-body images, providing labels on anatomical landmarks in each image of said training set, aligning each said training set image, generating positive and negative training examples for each landmark by cropping the aligned training volumes into one or more cropping windows of different spatial scales, and using said positive and negative examples to train a detector for each landmark at one or more spatial scales ranging from a coarse resolution to a fine resolution, wherein the spatial relationship between a cropping windows of a coarse resolution detector and a fine resolution detector is recorded.

Abstract: A reactive-diffusion method for estimating a diameter of an object of interest includes providing a volume of interest including a plurality of voxels, initializing at least two volumes of the volume of interest, wherein each of the voxels has at least two values corresponding to the at least two volumes of the volume of interest, respectively, performing a diffusion operation and a reaction operation on the voxels to adjust the at least two values, comparing, for each voxel, the at least two values to a threshold to assign each voxel to one of the at least two volumes, wherein the assignment of the voxels is a segmentation result, and estimating a diameter of the object of interest from the segmentation result, wherein the object of interest is represented by at least one of the at least two volumes but less than all the volumes.

Abstract: A method for estimating a diameter of an object of interest, includes extracting a sub-volume of voxels around a marker identifying a location of the object of interest, and determining a segmentation result identifying an edge of the object of interest by a reactive-diffusion method. The method further includes performing a boundary check on the segmentation result to determine whether the object of interest is solitary, estimating a diameter of the object of interest from the segmentation result upon determining the object of interest to be solitary, and extracting the object of interest by performing ellipsoid fit on the sub-volume and estimating a diameter of the object of interest upon determining the object of interest to be non-solitary.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a semiconductor output circuit that protects a circuit including such a reverse operation as reverses the potentials of a collector and an emitter of a bipolar transistor. A cathode of a protective diode is connected to a P type side of a base-emitter PN junction of a bipolar transistor constituting a semiconductor output circuit, while an anode of the protective diode is connected to an N type side of the base-emitter PN junction. By positively operating the bipolar transistor in a reverse direction with a reverse current gain &bgr;R>1, a reverse voltage between a collector and an emitter of the bipolar transistor is precluded from exceeding Veco to prevent the transistor from being broken down due to its reverse operation.

Abstract: Tetrahydrofurans suitable for use as starting materials in the synthesis of polyether polyols without causing coloration in the product polyether polyols can be obtained by contacting crude tetrahydrofurans with a mineral acid or a strongly acidic cation-exchange resin, followed by isolation through a simple distillation and/or rectification to obtain purified tetrahydrofurans.

Abstract: Methods for generating and implementing digital orientational filters. A first method of the present invention is provided for generating digital orientational filters of uniform size but each having a different fixed orientation. A second method provides for dilation of the digital orientation filters generated by the first method, both in a decimated and an undecimated format. A third method of the present invention provides for steering the orientation of the filters generated by the first method. Also, associated VLSI hardware based systems implementing the above methods are disclosed. The above methods and systems allow digital orientational filters to be utilized in computer vision and other applications requiring a large amount of video signal data to be processed in real-time.